We had a great time at Family Home Evening tonight at the home of Gary and Colleen McCall. They always set a beautiful table.
Here is one table...with Sparkling Apple Cider ready to serve.
G'lenn, Scott, and Steve enjoy talking together
just before dinner is served.
Dan, Gary, and Sherry are getting the
final preparations for dinner done.
Bloxhams put some lovely fruit kabobs together.
Dan brought a healthy veggie tray.
Eileen baked rolls, and
Sherry made a nutritious tossed salad.
Bonnie brought some of their yummy frozen corn.
And Gary and Colleen always choose delicious meat to serve...here are spare ribs that Gary smoked then bar-b-qued....hmmmm!
They also added a tri-tip roast,
in case some didn't want the bar-b-que.
I was so delighted with the colorful cups of fresh fruit and wafers in whipped cream that Marilyn brought for dessert, I plumb forgot
to take a photo of them.
She brought them and went back home to take care of Dave, who,
also missed Church yesterday because of a bad cold.
Sherry shared everyone's sentiments when she said she was sorry about Dave's being ill, but appreciated
his not coming to expose the rest of us.
She's been able to avoid getting a cold that she
usually gets during the holidays.
After dinner, we went into the living room by the fireplace,
where Gary and Colleen introduced their idea for the lesson.
They said that Steve and Sherry had touched on it
during the conversation at dinner, when they shared
their experiences of going to the Family History Library
to do some family history.
Colleen asked us each to share a story about an ancestor...who came across the plains...or who didn't come across the plains.
Now I will share snitches of what was shared.
[If I get your stories wrong, please let me know.]
Colleen shared about her Dad's Grandmother McGraw Carey...who was a character, smoked a pipe which she carried in her garter when she wasn't smoking. She taught--or had her children each learn--a musical instrument. They formed a band that played for various dances in the area they lived. (I don't remember where her Dad's father grew up...seems like it may have been Oregon.)
Her Dad was the only one in his family converted to the Church.
Gary's ancestors in Switzerland...
I think he said his mother's name was Barbara Stucki. Gary's ancestors from Switzerland ended up in the Driggs/Victor area of Idaho where Frank Bauman's family had also emigrated to from Switzerland, and they all grew up together.
Gary shared that his Great-grandfather, John Stucki, in 1857 at age 9, came across the plains in a handcart company.
Even though they weren't snowed on like the Willey and Martin Handcart Companies, it was still a hard trip pushing those handcarts. They did not have sufficient food, and they were pretty much out of food by the time they got to Western Wyoming. The party came to a group of buffalo and shot three of them. Each family got a big roast that they wrapped to save for dinner the next Sunday. As this 9-y-o boy helped push the handcart, he would take his pocketknife and cut little pieces of the buffalo meat off to chew on because he was so hungry.
On Sunday, when his Dad unwrapped the roast to cook for the Sunday dinner, only about half of it was left. Gary's G-gf didn't get in trouble like he thought he would, but his father cried because he knew his little boy was so hungry.
When they got to Salt Lake Brigham Young had them to go Santa Clara.
Steve shared a story about his ancestors who emigrated from England via ship to Florida through a "hole in the rock" on the ocean, docked at New Orleans, then came up river to Missouri on to Council Bluffs, then came across the plains from there in 1856 when the trail was well established.
Sherry's great-grandfather Neil Johansson, during the grain harvest, got his hand caught in the cogs of the binder when trying to unclog them. If they'd taken the cogs apart it would have taken three weeks to get the part, and the other farmer's would not have gotten their grain harvested, since they all used the same binder.
So he had his finger cut off so the others would not lose their crop for that season. Her g-gf did what had to be done.
(Sherry, if I didn't get that right, please let me know. Thanks.)
Ken Hansen couldn't make it through the snow and ice to walk over, so Bonnie fed him supper, then came over to McCall's.
Bonnie shared that her Dad, _______ Blauer was born with a club foot that was never operated on. His brother, Cecil, a fourth child, was also born with a club foot, but they did operate on his when he was a baby. His fourth child was also born with a club foot.
Bonnie's Grandmother Blauer was born in Switzerland and joined the Church at age 17 and came to Utah via the Perpetual Immigration Fund.
Her Grandfather Blauer, at age 25, was on the same ship, and had worked in the vineyards. He was planning to go to Australia, but someone who wanted to go to Australia asked him to trade tickets with him, so Bonnie's g-f decided he would trade his ticket to Australia and go to Utah to see him family before he then went on to Australia. When he went to Utah he met Bonnie's g-m, fell in love and married her instead of ever going to Australia.
G'lenn's Great-great-grandmother would always make her daughter wear her bonnet when she went outside. G'lenn's Great-grandmother would wear it till she was out of site of her mother, then get off her horse, take her bonnet off and tie it to a fence post and ride the rest of the way on her horse,
letting her hair flow free in the wind.
When "Nana"--as G'lenn said they all called her--headed back home, she would stop and retrieve her bonnet and her mother thought she's worn it the whole day.
Scott's Grandmother was born with club feet and could never walk because her feet wouldn't hold her up. She had to crawl her entire life. When Scott would go with his family to visit his Grandfather and Grandmother, they would have to wait outside while his Grandfather got his Grandmother up onto a chair and, put a blanket over her that covered her feet, before they went in. He never did see his Grandmother crawling on the floor.
She had a drawer behind her where she always had homemade oatmeal raisin cookies for them.
Scott doesn't know how she made them. He said his Grandfather must have lifted her up onto the counter to make and bake them.
To this day he loves oatmeal-raisin cookies.
Dan said his mother's G-g-g-grandfather, Phillip Delamare, was commissioned by Brigham Young to go to England and bring back the equipment for the first sugar factory in Utah. It was called the U and I Sugar Factory and was in South Jordan.
On his father's side--Elizabeth Snow--his grandmother Black's G-g-grandfather was a brother of Lorenzo Snow. (So he would also be
a brother of Eliza R. Snow.)
Eileen adds: Dan comes from a long line of famous Church leaders--on both sides of his family.
Eileen shared a little about her mother's family. Her maternal Grandfather Simpson "David" Huffaker homesteaded his farm in Rigby, having grown up in Willow Creek (now just a little north and east of Idaho Falls). He married in 1913 and her mother, Verna Beth Huffaker (Albertson) was their third child, born in Rigby in 1920. When she was a year old, someone told Dave and Ella that the growing season in Wendell, Idaho, was longer and the soil better, so they--along with two other families--moved there. And that's how Eileen was born in the Magic Valley and graduated from Wendell High School in 1957; Walt is a 1952 WHS graduate.
In 2000 when her Mom turned 80, Eileen helped her Mom get her hand-written life story typed and by the Christmas of 2000 had 450 pages done. But before printing it, her Mom wanted to add photos. Eileen is still adding photos. Her Mom lived to age 93--passing away in July 2013.
Eileen ended with the story of her mother's .conversion
On Easter Sunday, when Verna was 8, their Sunday School teacher,
Sister Bessie Kassins, had them go outside. The girls sat on the lawn, but Verna didn't want to get any grass stains on her pretty, new Easter dress, so she stood up.
Sister Kassins told them about the First Vision.
As Verna was listening intently, she heard a voice say: "It's true."
She never doubted from that day that Joseph Smith saw God the Father, and His Son Jesus Christ. Her testimony was unquenchable for the rest of her life!
Walt shared about his Uncle Tom Prescott. He shared that his four Prescott uncles, John, Hebe, Dean, and Tom were all strong men who enjoyed getting together to hunt. However, none of them liked snakes. Uncle Tom didn't want to be afraid of anything, so he would carry a snake in his pocket. He never did really like snakes, but he was never afraid of them again.
Walt added, "I'm like my mother, I am still terrified of snakes," adding, "I would never die of a snake bite, I would die of fright."
Here is the group photo:
Front row: Dan Black, Colleen McCall, Walt Petersen, Bonnie Hansen. Back row: Scott and G'lenn Bloxham, Gary McCall, Sherry and Steve Ormond.
Bonnie Hansen took this group photo so Eileen could be in it.
We always enjoy being together. However, it didn't seem the
same without Ken Hansen, Dave and Marilyn Gibbons, and Ken and Bonnie Fronk there. The Fronks are out of town for two weeks.
We thank Gary and Colleen McCall for always being such a gracious host and hostess.
I forgot to add one of the best, most important parts . . .
In closing, Colleen said: We've all enjoyed hearing a story about your ancestors.
Now...for your children and grandchildren to have a story about their ancestors, we each need to write our life story.
The challenge for us is: Start your life story.
Which for some of us will mean,
if we've started it,
bring it up to date.
Next month - February 20th - we will gather at the home of Walt and Eileen Petersen.
Sherry said that Darrell and Mary Ann Roskelley will be home on February 3rd, so they will rejoin us.
George and Jacque Gorton finish their mission in July 2017, we think.
